Continuing last week’s trend of wild news comes this interview with Anderson Silva where he claims he’s already signed a few contracts to fight Roy Jones Jr. presumably as soon as his current UFC deal is up. Translated via Fighters Only.
“It is undoubted that I will face Roy Jones. We have talked too much, have signed some contracts and we want to make it the sooner the better. It’s not for money or spotlight, it’s for my desire,” he says.
“I watch Roy Jones since he competed as an amateur and in the Olympic Games. I’m looking forward to this fight to put in the ring everything I know, to show my students in the future that I understand what I may say over this or that and don’t seem a pirate parrot.”
“Before that UFC is my focus. Dana treats me very well, as do all the staff of the organization. However I have to search what is better for myself,” he concluded.
Well, I don’t think there’s any need to further question how serious Anderson is about boxing Roy Jones Jr. I suppose he can sign anything he wants, but it won’t mean anything until he’s actually free and clear from his UFC contract. He has four fights left (three after Forrest), but there’s also the champion’s clause he’ll have to deal with if he’s still the middleweight champ at the end of his deal. I could be wrong, but I don’t think merely “retiring” would give him the freedom to pursue this fight either.
It’ll definitely be interesting to see what happens with this. Will the UFC let him pursue his dream if his true intention is to permanently retire? Or will we be seeing another legal battle emerge next year between the UFC and one its champions?
Leave a comment
Subscribe to MMAConvert
Share on Facebook
Submit to StumbleUpon
Submit to Digg
And what exactly is the “champion’s clause”?
Inside the Zuffa contract
Basically, if your still the champ at the end of your contract, it automatically extends for three fights or one year. In 99% of cases the fighter will reach a new deal with the UFC before this even comes up, but in Anderson’s case since he doesn’t want a new deal they could conceivably use this as a last resort to keep him. Whether it would uphold in court, I don’t know, not a lawyer, but at the very least if the UFC wanted to fight him on it, Anderson would have a legal battle on his hands instead of a boxing match.
This is assuming the clause is in his contract although its my understanding the UFC won’t give a fighter a title shot without signing it.